“It’s kind of a mid, three-quarter delivery and he really hides the baseball,” Marshall said. “He primarily throws one pitch. He has other pitches. But the fastball, he’s able to locate, and the deception part of it, it makes a 90 mph fastball look 93 or 94.”

Marshall said Sims’ performance this year compared to his first few years at UTSA can all be traced to toughness.

“If there was ever a complaint about Matt Sims in the past, it’s that he was just a one-inning guy and it would take him a couple of days to (recuperate). He wasn’t your closer who could go out every day. He was a guy that had to nurse the soreness,” Marshall said.

Sims’ work in the offseason apparently paid off.

“We really challenged him this year from the conditioning standpoint,” Marshall said. “He developed a toughness that has allowed him to get into more ball games. It’s making him better and better, I think, the fact that he’s getting more time out on the mound.”

The toughness has come in handy the past few weeks.

In the absence of middle reliever Jordan Pacheco, no longer with the team because of academic issues, UTSA needed someone to step into the breach. Sims has done it at the biggest moments.

For instance, in the WAC tournament opener last Wednesday, he entered the game in the eighth inning and went the distance in a 3-2, 14-inning victory over Sacramento State.

After rain halted a game against CSU Bakersfield last Friday, he stepped on the mound on Saturday morning when play resumed and pitched no-hit ball for the last five innings. UTSA won 1-0 to advance to the championship game.

“Losing Jordan, that was a big loss,” Sims said. “But our pitching staff has stepped up. We have had guys fill roles. It’s going to be rough without him. But I have no doubt that our pitching staff will come through.”

Sims admitted he adjusted his own mindset, knowing that he would need to throw more innings.

“I figured someone was going to have to take that role,” he said. “You know, (pitching coach Brett) Lawler, he told me (against Sacramento State) that I was going to be the first up. So I just went out and went the distance.

“Same thing with (Bakersfield),” Sims added. “At the start, coach told me I had two innings. But I ended up pitching five because I was feeling good. I was throwing it pretty good.”

Sims said it felt great to beat Dallas Baptist for the title and then celebrate on the field with his teammates.

It was particularly sweet to hear his name announced — a relief pitcher, no less — as the tournament MVP.

“It just feels good,” he said. “All that work you put in in the summer and the fall and the winter, all that conditioning. (When I heard the announcement) I was speechless.”